Professionalization of the Slovene Police
Purpose:
The purpose of the paper is to present a historical overview, analysis of the current situation and challenges for the future in the field of professionalization of the Slovene police.
Design/Methods/Approach:
The paper is based on a review of domestic and foreign professional and scientific literature, legal acts, strategic documents, research reports and websites.
Findings:
In the last 150 years the Slovenian police have gone through the fundamental transformation processes that required many organizational and functional changes. In Slovenia, as well as in the rest of Europe, the police are changing into a young profession. We estimate that compared to other institutions of plural policing, the police have gone the farthest on the path of professionalization. They have developed all the key elements of the profession – longer and precisely prescribed specialized training for entering the police profession, which is exclusively performed within a police organization, code of ethics, professional publications and associations. In contemporary societies the police do not function alone, therefore they can further develop only in the interdependence with the development of other policing institutions: local municipal wardens, customs, judicial police, private security and detective activity. In the future, cooperation between these various actors in the field of ensuring security remains a key challenge, with a major part of the responsibility being borne by the national security policy.
Originality/Value:
The paper presents a concise and precise overview of processes, milestones, key changes and challenges related to the professionalization of the police in Slovenia.
UDC: 351.74/.76:331.542(497.4)
Keywords: police, policing, education and training, professionalization, profession, occupation, Slovenia